Daily Jewel

by Pastor J.T. Carnell, McAlester, OK
Aug. 19, 2011

“Dig a Little Deeper”
"The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight..." – Proverbs 1:1,2

Wisdom: "The power of true and right discernment."
A great example of “discernment” in Solomon's life was his famous decision regarding an argument over all things a baby. Two women approached him arguing that the same baby belonged to each of them. Solomon's solution was to have the child sliced in two, giving half to each. (1 Kings 3:14-28) I question whether he would have actually performed such a gruesome task; however, Solomon had a hunch that the real mother would act on behalf of the child. When that woman stepped forward to plead for the child’s welfare, his discernment served to find the proper solution for what could have been a very sticky situation. Regardless of the situation we may find ourselves involved in, God’s wisdom offers simple, almost too simple solutions to life’s problems! It does not always mean that the solution will be pleasant and to our liking – it may, from time to time cause us to go outside our “comfort zones.” In the scenario above, the real mother was willing to let the other woman have her baby, the one she loved if it meant making certain that child would remain safe and unharmed. There is a word we would use to describe that willingness – it is called sacrifice! Is Solomon alone in his ability to make wise and right decisions? Absolutely not!! The wisdom of God is available to us all if we would just seek it with our whole heart. It may mean making some sacrifices (spending time in the Word for one!) to gain some of that wisdom but from everything we have seen it would be worth the effort. How well do you react to situations where there does not seem to be a clear and precise resolution? Do you say, "I don't know," and just leave it at that or do your say, "I don't know, but I will find out!" Jesus referred to Himself as, "The way, the truth and the life..." (John 14:6). This means that we do not have to settle for the "I don't knows" but instead, we can "Learn to Discern!" Chuck Swindoll tells of a story of an Irish farmer in the late 1800’s who after decades of futility decided to sell the farm and land his family had owned for three generations. No matter how hard they tried they simply could not get the land to produce enough to take care of their family. He found a willing “victim” (I mean buyer), a man from Belfast who was wanting to get away from the city and do some farming. He bought the land for practically nothing – but soon discovered the reason why. The land was rocky and the soil unproductive. But the man was determined to make it work. He decided to work the soil a little harder – dig a little deeper and maybe he would find better soil. However, no matter how deep he dug he kept finding rocks. As he got to looking he discovered some of the rocks looked different than the others. He took one to a friend and was told – it was silver! He was on the largest silver mine in Ireland. If only the original family had sought to dig a little deeper they would have been one of the wealthiest families in all of Ireland...maybe Europe! Could we learn something from this? I would hope so...in fact I would sincerely think we should!
Pastor J. T. Carnell